La Romana seeks Good Samaritans

Moises Sifren HOLDEN — Ruth had been on dialysis for five months when she ran out of money. She couldn’t pay for the treatments, and went to the office of hospital administrator Moises Sifren to plead her case.

Would the hospital let her continue with the dialysis, she begged. Not for her sake, but for her three girls, whom she was raising alone.

“If I say yes, then that’s $20,000 pesos every month forever that the hospital pays. If I say no, she dies,” Moises says.

He said yes, an easy choice as a human being but a more complex one for an executive who’s trying to keep viable a hospital that’s scraping by in a poor section of a poor city called La Romana in the Dominican Republic. Too many yesses, Moises knows, and eventually there is no more hospital.

That’s one of the messages Moises Sifren has brought with him on a speaking tour of churches and Rotary clubs in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

In an interview last week from the Holden home of Robert Beck, with whom he’s been staying, the affable Moises, 36, talked about the efforts to bring news of the good works of the Good Samaritan Hospital to local people, and perhaps return with pledges of financial assistance.

The La Romana mission is very familiar to many from the Wachusett region. Every year local people fly to the Dominican Republic to assist with the ongoing construction of Good Samaritan and bring clothes and medicine to the families of sugar cane cutters who live in shanty towns known as bateys. In April, The Landmark chronicled those efforts in a special section, “Mission of Hope: A La Romana Diary.”

When The Landmark reported on the progress at Good Samaritan, the second floor of the four-story hospital was nearing completion. Just recently, the pediatrics wing on the floor was opened, and the recovery and consultation rooms are almost finished, Moises said.

Moises estimates that the mission receives $350,000 in donations every year for the hospital and the bateys. One goal of his tour is to spread the word that those contributions have made an impact on the delivery of health care to thousands; to thank people for their generosity, and to politely ask that they continue to give.

It’s no small thing to ask people for money, he says, but it’s a necessary step to keep Good Samaritan open and operating. The mission continues to churn forward with new plans and initiatives, including the introduction of a food service to feed the patients, and an in-hospital restaurant for visitors.

It’s all a virtuous circle, he explains. Insurance companies won’t pay for patients to be treated in a hospital that doesn’t supply meals. By doing so, Good Samaritan can attract insured — read that: paying — patients, whose dollars will in turn help fund the treatments of those who can’t pay, like Ruth.

“We’re in the planning stages now, and we hope to have it done by April,” Moises said. “When we move [offices] to the second floor, we’ll have some room.”

Patients will have their meals prescribed by their doctors. The restaurant, at least for the time being, will stick to rice and beans. “A lot of rice and beans,” Moises said with a wide grin. “Dominicans like to eat a lot.”

The mission is also planning to drill a well in a barrio (an urban ghetto) called Los Mulos.

“Stomach problems are a big problem where we are,” he says. “Just by providing better quality of water, we can save people a trip to the hospital.”

Teams of volunteers from across the United States, including from the Wachusett towns, begin descending on La Romana from the beginning of January through mid-April. Moises is preparing to welcome a crew of surgeons from Kansas City who will do general surgical procedures. Another surgical group will perform tubal ligations; a team of plastic surgeons will visit La Romana in April.

Moises, who’s staying in Holden with his wife Nidia, said it’s crucial to make the winter trip to remind folks of the work that goes on all year in La Romana.

He’s quick to note that this time last year, the Dominican Republic was partying hard in celebration of the Red Sox World Series victory with Dominican heroes Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martiniz and David Ortiz.

This year?

“Once the Red Sox and Yankees lost, that was it,” he smiled. “Nobody watched.”